Speaking of delegate fights

By BEN SMITH

01/19/2008 06:30 PM EST

While counts from AP and NBC have given Clinton a 13-12 edge on delegates coming out of Nevada, Obama's campaign is claiming he won 13-12 on delegates, a measure on which he tied Clinton in New Hampshire.

Whoever has this right, it's a nice consolation prize, but nothing more, despite being nominally the only meaningful result of any caucus or primary. The reason that Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada matter obviously isn't the tiny number of delegates they produce. And nobody thinks Obama can win the nomination by losing the popular vote as the states get bigger and organization matters less.

Evidence for that argument, if you needed any: Edwards has congratulated Clinton on her victory. And Obama's campaign is now the one trying to argue that the process was flawed.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton sent out a statement titled "Obama wins delegate battle," with the candidate quoted as saying, "We came from over 25 points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled."

But there were also recriminations in a statement from campaign manager David Plouffe:

The statement doesn't exactly scream "winner," and the tacit endorsement of the UNITE HERE ads deprived the campaign of quite a bit of the moral high ground it held in Iowa:

We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.

We will investigate all of these thoroughly and would encourage anyone who had concern about actions at the caucus sites to call (866) 675-2008.

I've also heard a lot of anecdotes about disorganization at the caucuses, though it's not clear that this favored one candidate.

And I'll update if and when the delegate count is clear.

UPDATE: Final Delegate Count

AP says that Obama and Clinton “split the spoils” in Nevada. From AP’s latest report:

“Clinton won the popular vote, but Barack Obama edged her out for national convention delegates at stake, taking 13 to her 12.”

Nevada Democratic Party has percentage results up, but does not seem to have made an official statement on the delegate count.